Camping Trip Sept 9-11

Okay, so I am two weeks behind in updates!  First off, I’ll recap our camping trip:

Two weekends ago we took our youth camping in southern Missouri—and it was such a relaxing, refreshing weekend!  We arrived Friday evening in time to set up camp before dark, and a few of the youth even ventured into the frigid spring-fed river.  It was just cool enough that the warmth and dancing flames of campfire felt comfortable, but not so cool that you felt chilly.  We awoke in the middle of the night to light sprinkles, but it didn’t rain enough to make a mess (okay, so I did make my hubby get up and put a tarp over our borrowed tent, because it had a hole in it! But we soon went back to sleep.  It was the guys’ tent that stayed awake and talked in a low murmur for a couple hours.)

We had to rise early to get to the canoe place by 8:00, where they told us it was forecast to rain all day.  It was kind of chilly and dreary, but we went on the 16-mile trip as planned.  For the first couple hours, it was a bit uncomfortable for the 3 kayakers, because they were more apt to get wet, and one even tipped a couple times because the seat was out of whack, but by mid-morning, it felt pretty comfortable to be canoeing, and by noon, the sun came out beautifully, and they were glad to take a dip now and then in the ICY water : ).  At least most of them.  There were a couple of unintentional tippings, as the river had quite a few rocky, swift areas, and then there were those tippings where a helpful young man decided to allow the accompanying young lady the privilege of getting cooled off.  Of course, my Pilot kept our canoe dry, and we had the lunch and bag of sweatshirts/towels as insurance to protect us from otherwise minded co-canoers. 

Sat night we made mountain pies, and ended the day with devotions by the fire.  Sun morning we all cooked a gourmet breakfast over the fire, then we had worship around the campfire again.  All too soon, it was time to pack up and head back home. 

We have such a great bunch of youth—it was good to spend the weekend together just before Cody Brown heads to India on a 10-day mission trip.  We will miss him, but we are confident that God will make this time a blessing in Cody’s life and that Cody will also be a blessing to those he ministers to and with.

Pray for Cody, as he leaves this weekend to go to India.  Pray for our young church to grow in our Body life and love for one another.  Pray for wisdom for Jim and I—we daily need God’s direction, but especially this week. It is a sensitive situation that I cannot share here (as it involves other people), but we have already felt God working and are trusting that He will continue to move and direct.